becaue of gas shortages occuring from the pipeline breakage not from the spill itself.

You're correct. Pipeline spills don't threaten the environment or the water supply or the inhabitants or Indigenous inherent rights and burial sites. That's why I posted this - to prove that all those protesters in Canada and the U.S. are on the wrong track. Glad someone got the point!

The spill site is close to the Cahaba River, where a number of endangered species live. The EPA said that it was unlikely that the spill would reach the river. Local residents however were concerned that the spill would affect their water supplies. [...]

The majority of local and national media coverage of the spill has given considerable focus on the impact on prices, not on the potential impact to the local environment and communities. A number of Twitter users noted the irony of the pipeline being named the “Colonial Pipeline,” and used hashtags in support of the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Trust me when I tell you that here in Québec, when Indigenous folks and students and activists protest against building new pipelines to ship Alberta bitumen to New Brunswick for refining and export, it's not because it's fashionable.

So people who are ok with pipelines because they prefer them to the alternatives - that's great. Those who don't want pipelines or trucks or rail endangering their land and water and lives should also have their rights respected. Whether it's Energy East, or Dakota Access, or Colonial Pipeline, or CP Rail, or whoever.